Powers of the U.S. President

Constitutional

Appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers

Report on the State of the
Union

Require emergency convening of Congress

Receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers

Take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed

Commission all Officers of the United States

Extraordinary

In addition, presidents since the 1930s have asserted broad new powers beyond those laid out in the Constitution. Franklin Roosevelt decreed a wide variety of New Deal programs, some of which were later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Harry Truman initiated U.S. involvement in the Korean War without congressional approval, and later ordered a Federal government seizure of U.S. steel mills in order to prevent a labor stoppage. Lyndon Johnson sent U.S. forces into combat in Vietnam, beginning a long, costly war with barely any pretense of congressional approval. Richard Nixon declared a nationwide freeze on wages and prices without any constitutional authority, and ordered illegal wiretaps of political opponents. (Hence Arthur Schlesinger's 1973 book The Imperial Presidency: www.amazon.com) Bill Clinton launched a U.S.-led war against Serbia on behalf of Kosovo, entirely on his own. George W. Bush launched wars against Afghanistan and Iraq without a congressional declaration of war, and Barack Obama sent U.S. military aircraft to help the rebel forces win the 2011 Libyan civil war, ignoring the limits imposed by the War Powers Resolution of 1973. In sum, public acquiescence in continued growth of presidential power beyond its proper constitutional limits over the past century has raised serious doubt about whether this country is longer a republic but has instead become an empire.

Did you know?

From 1840 through 1960, every single president who was elected in a year ending in zero (1840 W.H. Harrison; 1860 Lincoln; 1880 Garfield; 1900 McKinley; 1920 Harding; 1940 F. Roosevelt; 1960 Kennedy) died in office. Ronald Reagan broke that seeming curse.

In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush received 2,912,790 votes in Florida, while Al Gore received 2,912,253 -- a margin of only 537 votes!Believe it or not!

In general, years are shown on the same line as the president who served for the greater part of that year, except for a few special cases indicated by a period (e.g., 1865), in which case the same year is listed for two successive presidents.
Year boxes with red numbers and red borders denote presidents who died while in office; blue number and border denotes resignation.
# = disputed election. @ = assassinated.
The names of presidents of special historical significance are indicated by bold face.

NOTE: The "50%" level indicated on the map pertains only to the top two candidates, excluding minor party candidates.